The Gorran Movement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

3 months agoJournals

The Gorran
Movement (‘Goran’) was founded in 2009 to address the Kurdistan Region of
Iraq’s demand for political and economic reform. Corruption, lack of
transparency in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s income and expenditure, the lack
of legitimate and active institutions, the existence in political party
interference in all sectors of the Kurdish region and the region wide
power-sharing agreement between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the
Kurdistan Democratic Party has all worked to create a feeling of discontent
among the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s residents. In 2009, The Gorran Movement
took advantage of this feeling of disenfranchisement in the region to demand a
complete change in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s political structure that were
built by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
and Kurdistan Democratic Party. Using this message The Gorran Movement’s first
participation in elections saw it become the second biggest political force in
the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the biggest political party in the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan’s traditional zone of influence by beating the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan in the elections. This research divides The Gorran
Movement’s conduct and effectiveness into three primary stages; (1) the
opposition stage, which can be described as The Gorran Movement’s golden
period; (2) the government participation stage after 2013, which can be
described as The Gorran Movement’s period of weakness; and (3) the post
Nawshirwan Mustafa stage, which can be described as The Gorran Movement’s
period of political entrenchment. The central argument of this research is that
The Gorran Movement fundamental problem has been that instead of being able to
be a catalyst for reform, it became a part of the very issues that it had for
many years campaigned against.